VeriSign Sees Sharp Climb in DDoS Attack Volume in Q2

1 - VeriSign Sees Sharp Climb in DDoS Attack Volume in Q2

by Sean Michael Kerner

Average Quarterly Peak Attack Size Growing

2 - Average Quarterly Peak Attack Size Growing

In the second quarter, the average quarterly peak attack size hit 12.42G bps, up from only 3.17G bps in the second quarter of 2013.

Largest Attack Was 300G bps

3 - Largest Attack Was 300G bps

The largest attack VeriSign saw in the second quarter had a peak of 300G bps.

Media and Entertainment Sites Are a Key Target

4 - Media and Entertainment Sites Are a Key Target

Though no market segment is immune to the risk of DDoS, in the second quarter, 43 percent of attacks were logged against media and entertainment sites.

Most DDoS Attacks Are Greater than 1G bps

5 - Most DDoS Attacks Are Greater than 1G bps

Over the course of the last quarter, there has been a shift in peak attack sizes. In the second quarter, 35 percent of DDoS attacks had a peak attack size of less than 1G bps, down from 74 percent in the first quarter of 2014.

UDP Attacks Continue to Dwarf TCP by Volume

6 - UDP Attacks Continue to Dwarf TCP by Volume

User Datagram Protocol-based (UDP-based) attacks once again represented the largest types of DDoS in terms of bandwidth. The top UDP attacks consumed 300G bps while the top Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) attacks hit 35G bps.

Application Attacks Decline

7 - Application Attacks Decline

Attackers are not going after the application layer as much as they once did. In the first quarter 2014, 30 percent of DDoS attacks targeted the application layer, which declined to only 10 percent in the second quarter.